Critical thickness for stripe domain formation in FePt thin films: Dependence on residual stress

Magnetically soft FePt thin films of varying thickness (20 nm ≤ d ≤ 100 nm) were sputter-deposited at different Ar pressures in order to systematically modify the residual stress and hence the magnetic anisotropy. The magnetic domain structure of FePt thin films showed a transition from planar to nearly parallel stripes above a critical thickness, dcr, which was found to depend on an anisotropy contribution perpendicular to the film plane, originated essentially in magnetoelastic effects. A careful structural characterization was made in order to obtain the strain and the stress induced magnetic anisotropy in the samples. Vibrating sample magnetometry and magnetic force microscopy were used to investigate the changes occurring in the magnetic domain structure and the critical thickness of each set of films. Joining together structural and magnetic results, we have been able to construct a phase diagram that divided regions of different domain structures, either by changing the film thickness or the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The experimental results could be satisfactorily explained by using a model developed by Murayama. The observed dependence of the magnetic properties of soft FePt thin films on the fabrication conditions opens the possibility to tune the magnetic domain configuration from planar to stripe-like domains by changing the argon sputtering pressure used during film deposition.